Some time between 3,000 and 5,000 years ago , prehistoric shepherds in Catalonia covered the wall of a outside cave in doodles depicting their visual modality of the cosmos . Announcing the breakthrough of theseancient cartoon , investigator say the artwork is unmatchable by anything in the archaeological records and looks like composed around some sorting of deity with enormous eyes and a extensive smile .
The find consists of more than 100 engravings disseminate over a section of wall value 8 meters ( 26.2 foot ) in length . Located within a cave know topically as the Cova de la Vila , the graphics were located by researchers from the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution ( IPHES ) . In astatement , the institute describes the etching as “ exceptional as much for their uniqueness as for their splendid Department of State of preservation . ”
Among theIPHESteam currently analyzing the discovery is Antonio Rodríguez - Hidalgo , who order IFLScience that “ there are no paintings , only engravings . ” While some of these etchings seem to have been made using sharpened stone fleck or bone points , others were embossed with nothing more than the creative person ’ fingertips .
Members of the IPHES team inspect the engravings. Image credit: Arnau Pascual Monells / Departament de Cultura
“ The first few millimetre of the surface of the John Rock is soft , and this allowed citizenry to directly engrave these figures with their fingers , ” said Rodríguez - Hidalgo . “ In fact , this presents a problem when it come to preservation , because even today if you were to put your hands on the wall , your fingerprints would stay on the surface . ”
The drawings themselves are break up into three horizontal levels , the low of which is populated with basic zoomorphic shape . “ The figures seem to represent two different type of animals , possibly horse and bovine , ” explicate Rodríguez - Hidalgo . “ However , they could really be anything because they are diagrammatic . ”
The middle part , meanwhile , is plaster with “ completely abstract drawings ” which are passing unmanageable to represent but which might represent shanty or other dwellings . in the end , the upper layer appears to present the sky , and contains diagrammatical portrayal of “ stars or suns ” .
The composition is split into three layers, with animals at the bottom and the heavens at the top. Image credit Arnau Pascual Monells / Departament de Cultura
The integral composition is prevail by what Rodríguez - Hidalgo described as “ a central character that stands out because it is much larger than the other figures and is evocative of a symbolic representation that is fairly usual in late prehistory – in the Copper Age or former Bronze Age in the Iberian Peninsula – known as anidolo oculado[large - eyed idol ] . ”
“ [ These figure ] may represent a deity of some kind and are noted because they have large eyes . ” In this pillow slip , the unknown creature is draw with “ a expectant smile or beard and enormous eyes ” .
While determining the exact age of these engraving is likely to testify difficult , Rodríguez - Hidalgo said that the presence of this central figure “ places [ the site ] in a specific period of prehistory , between the end of the Neolithic and the first of the Bronze Age . ” Within the context of the Iberian Peninsula , this equates to between three and five millennia ago .
At this stage , the substance and function of these ancient cutting stay on unknown , although numerous possibility have been proposed . Though unproved , one such hypothesis states that the doodle stand for a type of prehistoricgraffiti , go away by wandering shepherds who select refuge in the cave overnight or during storms .
Rodríguez - Hidalgo liken this to the modern custom of writing one ’s name or initials on monument or subway perambulator . “ This is something very human , which we ’ve belike been doing throughout our account , ” he said .
However , noticing the graded nature of the report , the IPHES team are more inclined to believe that the illustration act the cosmology of these ancient pastoral social club . According to the group ’s cave art expert Ramon Viñas , “ the arrangement is far from random , and has a clear symbolic meaning . ”
“ The composition is absolutely unparalleled and speaks to us about the cosmovision of the local universe during the process of Neolithization . ”
After direct an initial search of the cavern , the team discovered a sea eggshell that may have been filled with animal fat and used as a torch by those who created the images . “ In the next few months we will set about a small excavation to essay and uncover more textile culture from the meter that the engravings were made , ” said Rodríguez - Hidalgo .
“ Hopefully that will give us a better idea of their old age as well as their meaning . ”
